Mideast: Is NEOM Saudi Arabia’s Future?

Arch Daily

NEOM, Saudi Arabia’s planned future city has been a source of speculation ever since its announcement in 2017, but what really is it? And how will it effect the Country’s strives to modernize? 

Three years ago, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman inaugurated NEOM, a future “smart city” located in Saudi Arabia’s northwest region of Tabuk. Neom, stylized as NEOM, is an amalgamation of neo, as in new, and the letter m signifying the Arabic word for future mustaqbal. The “New Future” city is a flagship project within Saudi Vision 2030, an ambitious plan to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy and quell dependence on oil. The promises of NEOM seem to include most all usual futuristic trappings: transportation by autonomous vehicles, the use of robots, a 100% renewable energy system, and even a hub for biotech research. To make this future a reality Saudi Arabia has invested a sizeable amount of resources into the project, but it remains a controversial initiative considering Saudi Arabia’s reputation in the international system as a human rights abuser and an aggressive actor in regional geopolitics. 

Money Matters of NEOM 

To make NEOM a reality, Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince bin Salman invested some $500 billion of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, in addition to funds coming from international investors. The project, like the rest of Saudi Vision 2030, is meant to tackle the problem of diversifying the country’s economy away from oil as well as attracting the attention of international corporations. Saudi Arabia has contracted Gladstone Place Partners, a strategy firm, to the tune of around $200,000; and has enlisted foreign construction companies and energy developers to help in creating the city, while making partnerships with media companies and telecommunication entities. 

At the center of NEOM’s purpose, besides serving as a tourist attraction, is the idea of building an international financial and technological hub in Saudi Arabia that can appeal to international businesses. The Crown Prince will seek to make the city a trade center fitted with the latest technologies and harboring the most important industries: from digital tech, entertainment and manufacturing, all the way to biotechnology and the energy sector. But as will be seen as Saudi Arabia’s reputation, especially as it comes to human rights, tarnishes its repute to such an extent that it will be hard to find companies investing. Saudi Arabia has promised that NEOM will “embody an international ethos” and accommodate “Saudis and expatriates alike”. But it remains to be seen if the Gulf country can bank on attracting to foreigners at the level that it would like to. 

The Geopolitics of NEOM and the Human Rights Sized Elephant in the Room 

NEOM will be located near the border of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, as well as the Red Sea separating it from Egypt. A location exploited by the Saudi Arabian government who have promoted through PR releases and NEOM’s website that 40% of the world’s population can reach it in 4 hours. But it is also located at the center of an intense geopolitical situation that has bad actors on all sides. Saudi Arabia’s relationship with other countries in the region, most importantly its interference and role in conflict in neighbouring countries will remain an obstacle to future city building. Israel, whom has recently been making strides with other Gulf countries, seems to be enthusiastic about the project; and has allowed Egypt to transfer Red Sea Islands to the Gulf country, perhaps as a sign of their eye to future economic relations. If indeed relations between the two do warm up, other regional players like Turkey and Iran will respond as severely as they have to other Gulf countries sparking relations with Israel. 

But the real problem remains Saudi Arabia’s track record on human rights. Most recently the Saudi Arabian government has announced that its courts will commute death sentences to the five
rogue” Saudi nationals who extrajudicially killed the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. Seemingly scapegoating the individuals while the Crown Prince denies any involvement, although there remains evidence that he was indeed involved. This has remained an obstacle for Saudi Arabia and its reputation and has restrained NEOM’s success in attracting to foreign clientele.  

With that said, NEOM has resulted in another human rights atrocity all in itself. A Saudi activist, named Abdulrahim al-Huwaiti, on April 13th, 2020 was killed by the Saudi Special Forces, after protesting the building of NEOM, in an area inhabited by a nomadic tribe who were now being forcibly displaced. The Huwaitat tribe, a confederation of around 20,000 members, are being evicted out of their homes and arrested if they don’t agree to leaving. A Saudi response to the abuse has been to deny Abdulrahim’s killing and placate the tribe.  

Saudi Arabia’s government has a long history of displacing nomadic tribes as they look towards modernization, and it seems that NEOM is an extension of the government’s policy of modernizing by all means necessary. Saudi Arabia will have to contend with its distressful human rights record if it wishes to attract the world to its future city in the desert. Will NEOM be the success that the government and Crown Prince would like it to be? It remains to be seen, but it is not the first time Saudi Arabia attempted at building an ambitious megacity. 

Perhaps the more important question is should NEOM be built. If Saudi Arabia is able to modernize at the expense of its own citizenry and is allowed with impunity to continue to do so, how will companies justify their complicity in its human rights abuses? The government of Saudi Arabia has the PR obstacle it does in NEOM because of its reputation, and that is justified. It seems regressive to build a ‘future city’ in the country if its human rights record remains dismally in the past. If Saudi Arabia intends to modernize, it should do so in all aspects. Companies will invest in Saudi Arabia if they feel, perhaps more for public relations reasons rather than any sort of altruism, that Saudi Arabia is indeed becoming a liberal and human rights focused country. Either wise NEOM will be nothing but geographic vaporware. A futuristic mirage with no tangible outcome.